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Beth Childs
Elizabeth "Beth" Childs was one of the first clones seen on Orphan Black. She becomes Sarah's entry point into the mystery of her suicide as well as the apparent clone conspiracy. Beth is revealed backwards from the moment of her death, as Sarah takes on her identity and reconstructs her last days. By literally becoming Beth, part of Sarah’s journey lies in understanding her, and she comes to deeply respect the valiant, damaged cop she so rashly switched places with. Biography Early life Beth was born on April 1, 1984 in East York, Canada. Her monitor was Paul Dierden. Not much is known about how they were set up to meet, or if he was her first and only monitor, but at one point, Beth began dating and later moved in with him. Eventually, Katja Obinger was able to track down Beth. Katja had contacted her, telling her that someone was killing off her "genetic identicals" in Europe. Beth then used the facial-recognition software to find driver's licenses in North America that would match her and found two matches: Cosima Niehaus and Alison Hendrix. She tells Katja about them, then Katja soon requested to see her new "scientist friend", Cosima. Beth then asked Katja to give proof of herself and the other European clones (i.e. blood and hair samples, birth certificates, passports and photo IDs) on Cosima's request. Since then, the trio in North America has been helping each other figure things out. Along the way, Beth taught Alison how to use a gun so Alison can protect her family in case anything happened. For this, Alison became grateful to her. She had also come to admire Beth's discreetness, given their situation. Despite this, they never really knew much about each other and tried to keep their distance. Things took a turn for worse for Beth when she erroneously killed Maggie Chen after she avoided being caught by Neolutionists. Out of loyalty, her partner, Art, helped her cover up for her by making the shooting look merely accidental. Despite this, Beth was suspended and became the subject to an investigation regarding the civilian shooting. Beth then became suspicious of Paul. Beth had loved him, but Paul apparently did not love her the same way, so Beth could not understand why he just wouldn't leave. In a box hidden in her things, Beth kept some things of Paul's and hid a couple of letters she wrote to him. She then borrowed a spy kit from Raj Singh and began spying on Paul. She may have found out that he is her monitor, making things more complicated and painful for her. Beth then apparently stopped talking to Paul after shooting Chen. In addition to the stress of everything that was going on in her life, Beth had been asking her doctor for extra prescriptions to her drugs and, according to Paul, had been mixing these up at times. In "Variation Under Nature", Cosima herself had pointed out that Beth was "Losing it. Clinically." Season 1 Beth was the first clone that Sarah Manning encounters. She was first heard crying and later seen pacing down the platform opposite Sarah, who was virtually unaware of the other clones. In an almost ritualistic manner, Beth set aside her purse and stripped down to her work outfit, removing her shoes and folded her jacket in the process. As Sarah began to approach her, Beth calmly turned around to face her genetic copy—much to Sarah's shock and bewilderment. After exchanging their first and last few glances, Beth shed a tear and simply continued walking towards the approaching train to her untimely death. Her body's cremation was paid for by Sarah's foster brother, Felix. Despite the initial trauma of witnessing the suicide, Sarah never failed to see an opportunity. She stole Beth's purse and assumed her identity. Despite Sarah's short rush as Beth, the reality of Beth's past constantly complicated things for Sarah, leading her to more mysteries revolving around Beth's suicide. In "Conditions of Existence", the group experimenting on the clones revisited her apartment to examine her. Mistaking Sarah for Beth, they perform the procedure on her instead. Paul eventually notices that Sarah lacks Beth's scar from a mountain biking accident and realizes that the woman he had been with was not Beth. He confronts Sarah, who then tells him the truth: Beth is dead, and that he may have unwittingly pushed her into committing suicide. Season 3 In the episode "Formalized, Complex, and Costly", it is revealed that on the night she committed suicide Beth had attempted to confide in Arthur Bell about the existence of the Leda Clones. However, Art had dismissed her attempts to reveal the truth as side-effects from the pills she had been taking days prior to her death. Her second appearance in the series since her suicide in the opening scene of the episode "Natural Selection", comes in the form of a hallucination while Sarah is suffering from a fever caused by the injected blood of one of CASTOR clone Rudy in "Certain Agony of the Battlefield". While making tea, dream-vision Beth tells Sarah the story of the day Paul moved in with only two suitcases to his name, which she says should have been a red flag “but I was so gaga for him I convinced myself he was some kind of Zen master, materially unattached.” After gulping down some pills she continues, “You two are a good match – liars, grifters.” When Sarah says she misses her and blames herself for letting Beth jump, dream-world Beth is angered but insists, “No. I jumped. I let myself get consumed by this thing… I killed myself because I couldn’t understand it.” Sarah claims not to understand either, to which Beth responds, “You’re starting to.” Season 4 In the episode "The Collapse of Nature", Beth receives a call from M.K. in the middle of a night after she has found a body buried by paramedics in the woods. She heads to the bathroom to ready herself and receives the co-ordinates for the body's location. It is revealed here that she snorts on cocaine hidden underneath her bathroom sink. Before heading out, Paul tells her to come early as he will be making dinner tonight and kisses her on the cheek. Personality According to Art, Beth was often seen as somewhat aggressive, headstrong and a bit verbally vulgar. In "Natural Selection", as Beth waited her turn to talk to her doctor, he mused to Beth "Where's your wit gone? You haven't called me dipshit all day." In "Variation Under Nature", Cosima jokingly advised for Sarah to keep her sense of humor since Beth, evidently, could not. Beth also seemed concerned for and took good care of her physical fitness, together with her boyfriend, Paul. When stressed, Beth tended to ask her doctor for medications. Unfortunately, she tended to mix these up at times, causing constant emotional worry and concern for her boyfriend, Paul. Appearances Gallery: Giphy.gif Beth.png OrphanBlack1x01BethChilds.jpg Trivia *According to police reports in "Instinct", her badge number is 1114. References Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Season 1 Characters Category:LEDA Clones Category:Clone Club Category:Appears in season 3 Category:Appears in Season 4 Category:Characters in the Police Force